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21 months after my leg amputation

LEG AMPUTATION - 30 MONTHS LATER
Hello, I am Barbara Anderson Rauch.   Some of you may already know my story, some may not know it yet.
On March 14, 2017, I became severely ill from a Sepsis infection in my left leg. The infection was aggressive and doing its best to kill me. To save my life, the doctors had to amputate the infected left leg at mid-thigh. The amputation has made me wheelchair dependent and forced me to move from my home of 14 years because of all the stairs there.  I now live in a senior/disabled, wheelchair friendly apartment along with my two kittyboyz, Nigel, and Atticus.

MY 30 Month UPDATE: (and I am feeling very blessed by how fast the responses started.  Thank you!)

Hello, Everyone!
It has been 30 months since a highly aggressive Sepsis made it necessary for 2/3 of my left leg to be amputated in order to save my life. 
Life truly can change in the blink of an eye.
I have chosen to remain focused (mostly) on the things I can still do. Yes, I miss being able to dance and to be able to just be able to get up and go, but you know...... still being alive... that means a lot too.
So, I am in need of raising enough to replace my manual chair. It was involved in a car-wheelchair incident, through no fault of my own. Someone else was responsible for loading my chair to get me to and from an event and he put my chair behind his truck rather than in the back of it.  
I don't need to raise thousands this time, just a few hundred. To be exact, $860.
I've lived with the bent frame, the front wheel that is 4 inches from meeting the ground, and the left front brake that no longer works at all, long enough. It has now become all about the safety issues and the falls I've been takin g because the chair has not been staying locked in place.
Go Fund Me is my best option to bey my replacement chair as the company I'm buying the new chair from has merged with another company and now needs to have full payment up front.  The people from the former  company did what they could but they weren't able to work an agreement the way they did the first time around, even though I had the manual and the power chair fully paid off earlier than the schedule they had set up. 
Times are tough and business is business.  I DO understand.  
Blessings on those of you willing to help me out again here. <3

MY 21 Month Update:

My friend Kristen suggested I do an update to let people who have donated to my campaign know how I am doing 21 months after 2/3 of my left leg was amputated due to a sepsis infection that was doing its best to kill me so here goes:
I now have my custom-built powerchair.  it is Big Bird yellow, a color nobody else here in Elmira has.  (Elmira has many mobility impaired people who use crutches, walkers, wheelchairs, scooters, and power chairs to get around town.)
I can now competently board a city bus without running over the driver or any other passengers, something we all appreciate and I am still active with the C-Tran Rider's Advisory Council, now as their handicapped rider viewpoint.
I am still adapting to the new apartment here in the middle of the city.  I have lived suburban-rural most of my life, so the constant noise level took a lot of adjustment for me.
I told Kristen that I didn't think my day to day life would be all that fascinating.  She convinced me to share anyway, so here goes...
My apartment is a historic building built in the early 1920's to be used as the YMCA.  It is on a corner and right across from the post office the bus station, and the main branch of the library.  The latter is wonderful as I am an avid reader, plus they have DVD's audiobooks, and they offer many free movies and hold a lot of free classes in art, jewelry making, and computer tech skills.  It is really a social center for much of the community.
I am 3-4 blocks from 2 grocery stores, 2 pharmacies, a Dollar General, a Family Dollar, and several restaurants. My doctors are 5-6 blocks from me too, so I can travel all these places using my powerchair. I do not go out in the community as much as I did prior to the amputation.  Street and people noise gets to me quickly.  I prefer to be home with my 2 wonderful feline companions, Nigel Allowhiskas, and Atticus Finch.  I adopted them from the ASPCA  3-1/2 years ago.  They are now 7-1/2-year-old brothers born 1 litter apart, from the same mama, but with different daddies.   They are both "orange" kitties.  Nigel is 23.5 pounds of triple thick apricot and white soft plush fur.  He is very dignified and is known as the Winston Churchill of the cat world.  Atticus is 9.25 pounds of orange, caramel, and cream tiger pattern fur.  His tail is kinked at the tip from an encounter with a door in his early kittenhood.  He is definitely the Indiana Jones of the cat world and gets into everything!!!  He keeps his brother and me highly entertained with his lunacy.

Aside from my avid reading, especially psychological thrillers, I am very active on Facebook.
I belong to an eclectic variety of groups covering a range of subjects,  There are cat groups, health-related groups, Native American groups, Art and Music groups, Environmental and Social Issues groups, and games groups for the 3 games that I play.  I am also an administrator for one of the games groups.
I have made many friends from all over the world through all these groups and we do well with keeping each other's brains stimulated.
Many people have told me during the last 20 months that they admire the strength I have shown while working through the numerous challenges and adaptations to life as a wheelchair-bound amputee.
This is how I see it.  Life can change in the blink of an eye.  I blinked and was given 2 choices.
I could spend my life wallowing in self-pity, isolating myself from the world or I could reach out for what I could still do, try to expand on that and start to explore the interests and opportunities I never had time for before the sepsis infection happened.
We are not guaranteed much in life.  We are given choices.  How we respond to those choices defines who we are. 
This journey has shown me the amazing kindness of so many people who have generously donated to my GFM account.  The donations have helped my rebuild my life in so many ways, one of the most heartfelt for me, the words of encouragement, the prayers said, and the love.
I thank you all.  You are in my prayers and in my heart forever.
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Donations 

  • Anonymous
    • $300 
    • 4 yrs
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Organizer

Barbara Anderson Rauch
Organizer
Elmira, NY

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